As you know, I am a bit proponent of using article marketing to market your business. This is why I am very excited to interview Christopher Knight, the CEO of EzineArticles.com:

Biana: Many of us have had careers before getting into online marketing. What is your background? What did you do before starting EzineArticles.com?

Christopher: Before EzineArticles I was the Founder & CEO of SparkLIST, a permission-based email newsletter hosting service provider. I’ve been involved in several dot com companies since the mid 1990s ranging from website design, web hosting, running an ISP and an email newsletter advertising network.

Biana: Please tell us how EzineArticles.com got started. How did you get the idea for it? When did you launch it? What inspired you to start it?

Christopher: EzineArticles.com started in November of 1999 and our team acquired the site from its original owner as part of a 30 site roll up. I had raised VC and went on a buying spree to acquire sites that provided value for email newsletter publishers. EzineArticles was one of the 30 sites.

The site was largely ignored between 2000-2004 due to other competing priorities and then in August of 2004 our team scrapped the entire site and started all over again. The old model for the site included only the article title, author name and article summary…and our site visitors had to give up their email address in order to get access to the full article. Seemed like a smart idea in the late 1990s but no longer a smart idea in today’s world.

Biana: How many authors/how many articles do you have at EzineArticles now?

Christopher: As of this interview, over 150,000 expert authors in 570 different niche markets have registered and we’re hosting a little over 1.25 million unique/original articles.

Biana: Why is it important for business owners to write and submit articles online?

Christopher: Business owners gain market credibility, exposure and traffic back to their website in exchange for writing and submitting short 450-700 word articles centered around their expertise.

They are essentially exchanging content for highly pre-qualified visitors/traffic back to their website.

Articles are usually ‘how to’ or do it yourself informational type articles and they are followed by a “resource box” at the very bottom of each article. The article body is where the expert gives of their expertise; the resource box is where they get to promote themselves and give a link to their website.

Example: If an business owner is an expert in Vacation Rentals and wrote articles about various beach, cottage and vacation rentals; the visitors who come to the expert authors website are already interested in the topic they are reading… hence they are pre-qualified visitors (the best kind!).

Biana: Can you give your top three tips for business owners who are just starting with writing and submitting articles?

Christopher: CONSISTENCY: Know article writing & marketing is not a one shot strategy. It’s important to be consistent over time. It’s a lot like advertising where you market your business every single month.

QUALITY: Your articles should be easy to scan, include bullet points, numbered lists and proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. Articles must be original and unique / exclusive to the person who wrote the article, but does not have to be exclusive to EzineArticles.com (means you can also use your articles on your own website).

QUANTITY: After you master writing quality original unique articles, the only way to really succeed with this strategy is to build your article inventory over time. Every article you write is what I call an “article agent” that sells for you. More article agents = more articles out there attracting traffic for you. Build your article inventory into the dozens, then hundreds and eventually thousands of high quality articles.

Biana: Once we submit our articles to EzineArticles.com, how can we make them stand out among other articles?

Christopher: Considering less than 15% of our members write more than 10 articles; the easy way to immediately DOMINATE your niche is to enter yourself into the top 15% club of expert authors who write more than 10 articles! Yes, it’s this simple.

On the quality side, make sure your articles offer unique tips, tricks, strategies, and ideas that are not the same rehashed tips you see in every article written by a lazy expert copying some ideas found elsewhere.

Be sure to include your author photo and extended bio as this builds more credibility and gets you access to more exposure within EzineArticles.com as we restrict certain features to authors with their photo uploaded.

Biana: What’s ahead for the article marketing industry in the next 1-3 years?

Christopher: Every month the quality standards continue to raise and that means low quality thin content writers will find it harder and harder to get their content accepted by the best sites.

It’ll continue to take a higher volume of articles to make the same impact that a lower volume would do today. This is largely due to the rising content supply and competition… but again, remember that only a minority of expert authors publish beyond 10 articles. You should aim to be the expert author who writes way more than 10 articles.

There will continue to be a shortage of really high quality original & unique articles. Ultimately, there are no easy short-cuts to produce high quality work. You can stand out easily in the crowd of fellow experts by only putting out high quality work; but don’t be paralyzed by writing for perfection. Perfection is not necessary. Massive writing & article submitting action is if you want to be really successful.

I recently heard from a business owner who said that she watched TV for just an hour and it left her very scared of the state of the economy and how it was going to affect her business. My first recommendation was to turn off the TV and concentrate on her business and her customers instead.

But then I started thinking – what could she have in that one hour instead of watching the news that would have helped her with her business? Here are 10 things that take just 1 hour to do and that help you market your business:

1. Write an article that you can submit to article directories to market your business.

2. Spend an hour on Twitter networking and getting to know your followers.

3. Review your web site statistics to learn how your web site visitors are using your site.

4. Write a blog post.

5. Approve and welcome new Facebook friends.

6. Listen to a marketing teleseminar or audio recording. Here is one marketing audio recording for you to listen to: 5 Keys For Creating Your Online Marketing Plan Audio Recording.

7. Submit an existing article to article directories. You can submit it to 10-15 directories in an hour.

8. Reply to your e-mail.

9. Review one of your sales letter to improve conversions.

10. Do keyword research and find good keywords to use on your web site, so that you can get more search engine traffic.

So here are my 10 things you can do in just 1 hour to promote your business. I am sure there are many more – what are the things you recommend doing to promote a business that will only take 1 hour?

Biana Babinsky

There are many advantages to planning your marketing:

– You will reach your goals faster because you map out your goals and your actions.

– You always know what to do. Instead of wasting 15-30 minutes every day just trying to figure out which marketing tasks need to be done, you will know exactly what to do.

– You will never waste your time re-doing the same thing because you will know whether you did it or not – it is all in your marketing plan.

Ready to create your own Online Marketing Plan and become more successful? Then take a look at this FREE Tutorial for coaches: FREE How To Market Your Coaching Business Tutorial

Every time I review traffic coming to my blog, I see a lot of traffic coming from search engines. How do search engines bring traffic to my blog? Here is how:

– I come up with a post idea and write a blog post.

– I optimize the post for search engines and post it on my blog.

– The post gets indexed in search engines.

– People who have never heard of me before use search engines to find information. They see my blog post in the search engine, visit the post and read it.

Search engine traffic is very useful – if I look further into my statistics, I see that some people who come to my blog from search engines subscribe to my blog feed, subscribe to my newsletter and become clients. And search engine traffic is free – it does not cost me anything to get this traffic to my blog.

So how can you capitalize on this and bring free search engine traffic to your blog? Here is how:

Come Up With Good Topics For Your Blog Posts

It is not enough for people to find your blog posts using search engines. When they come to your blog, you need to convince them to stay and read. And this is done by writing interesting blog posts.

Optimize Your Blog Posts For Search Engines

Do research and find popular keywords that you can use in your blog posts. Then, use these keywords to optimize your post. Use a keyword in your blog title and use it in your blog post’s text.

Warning: do not use the keywords too many times in the blog text. A few mentions are ok, but too many will adversely affect your search engine rankings.

Get Links To Your Blog

Using keywords is not enough. In order to get good rankings in search engines, your blog must have other web sites linking to it.

There are lots of different ways to get links to your blog. You can participate in blog rolls and use article marketing and social networking sites and do many other things to get links to your blog.

Monitor And Make Changes Accordingly

Monitor your search engine traffic and analyze the keywords that search engines use to drive traffic to your blog. You may find keywords that you are not using yet in your statistics. Start using them to drum up even more traffic.

Keep refining your search engine optimization strategy based on what you learn in your statistics. Doing this will help you get more search engine traffic to your blog.

I discuss how to get traffic to your blog in the How To Get More Traffic & Readers For Your Blog Study Guide. Get it now at https://www.marketingsalad.com/blog.html

Biana Babinsky

I was reading an article today, Sneaky ‘daylighters’ risk firing by working extra jobs. I realized as I was reading it that two of the experts that they cite in the article are coaches. One is a business coach and the other one is a business communication coach.

I love how coaches are now quoted in many different publications, giving their opinions on anything from job search to running a business to weight loss.

And the best part about it is that introduces people, who have never heard of coaching or who have only heard about it once a twice before, to the coaching field. I am sure that after reading the article quite a few people went to a search engine to find out what coaching is all about.

And this is another reason to work hard and get better placement in search engines for your business web site. As coaching is becoming mainstream, more and more people are going to be using search engines to find out more about coaching.

There are many search terms that you can optimize your web site for. In addition to using obvious terms, such as life coaching, life coach, business coaches, career coaches, find keywords that your potential clients use to look for services like yours. Then use the keywords to optimize your web site for search engines.

Biana Babinsky

I posted a message with this headline on a few lists and heard back from a few coaches who told me that based on the traffic statistics for their blogs, even their dogs do not read their blogs.

Here is what you need to do in order to be successful with your blog:

Define Your Goals For Your Blog.

What do YOU want to happen? Do you want a million readers? More newsletter subscribers? A lot of clients to find your blog?

Let’s say that you are a coach and author who recently released a book. So your goal for your blog is to sell more of your books.

Set Up Your Blog To Help You Reach Your Goal.

What does your blog need to have in order to help you reach your goal? To continue with the previous example, if you are a coach and an author, whose goal is to sell more books, you must add information about your book to the blog. Add information to the header and to the menu, so that information about the book is visible on every blog post. You should also blog about your book once in a while as well.

Blog About Things Of Interest To Your Target Market.

Since you would like your target market to come to your blog, create blog posts on topics that your target market is interested in.

Drive Your Target Market To Your Blog.

Now that you know what your goals for your blog are, you have set up your blog to help you reach these goals and you blog about things of interest to your target market, you need to bring the actual target market to your blog.

In order for you to actually achieve your goals you need your target market to come to your blog and purchase your book. You can achieve that by bringing your target market to your blog.

How can you do that? You can do that by using online marketing techniques such as article marketing, social networking, newsletter publishing, and many others to drive traffic to your blog.

I discuss many different ways to drive to your blog in the How To Get More Traffic & Readers For Your Blog Study Guide. You can get it now at https://www.marketingsalad.com/blog.html

Biana Babinsky

I have been getting questions from many coaches lately about how they can use Twitter as a part of the online marketing strategy for their coaching business.

I really enjoy networking on Twitter! It has been useful in many different ways – I have done research, connected with potential clients, found joint venture partners and am working on a few new projects, all thanks to Twitter!

Here are five tips to show you how to use Twitter to promote your coaching business:

– Do Market Research. Connect with members of your target market and see what they are talking about. Are they experiencing issues that you can help them with? This is an opportunity to find topics for new hot products that you can create!

– Get Help And Information On Many Different Topics. I follow different people in different industries, who share lots of useful information. My connections share information on social networking, marketing, new interesting web sites, trends, and lots of other things.

– Create Personal Connections. Twitter gives you an opportunity to connect 1-on-1 with many different people, from potential clients to people you can do joint ventures with to people who you have always admired but have never talked to.

I love being able to chat with people whose newsletters I have been reading for a long time!

– Let Your Followers Know About Your Blog Posts & Articles. Don’t keep your blog posts and articles to yourself – share them with your followers! Twitter is great for sharing your blog posts and articles with other members.

And you can use twiterfeed to have your posts post to Tweeter automatically, saving yourself time. For example, this blog post will be appearing on my Twitter page.

– Promote Your Teleseminars And Other Events. You should spend a lot more time on networking, helping and connecting with others than on promoting yourself, but it’s perfectly fine to let your followers know about your teleseminars and other events you are holding from time to time.

Just don’t make ALL of your twits about your events – your followers will lose interest and un-follow you.

There is a ton of other things you can do on Twitter – create joint ventures with other business owners, get newsletter subscribers, find people to teach teleseminars with, find business and marketing resources, find vendors, ask for recommendations, etc. It is a great social networking web site that can help you promote your coaching business. Check it out and join it!

And for more information on how to use Twitter to promote your coaching business, get the How To Use Twitter To Promote Your Business Home Study Guide at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/ztr

Biana Babinsky

If you are using social networking, chances are, you have an account at Facebook. Facebook has thousands of applications you can use and you might be wondering which ones to use to promote your business. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on Why You Should Not Use Too Many Applications On Your Facebook Profile.

Since then a few business owners have asked me what I actually use and recommend to others to use on Facebook. Here are my recommendations:

– My Box Application. This is a great application that lets you display HTML code on your Facebook Profile. Use it to display your newsletter sign-up and promote your free gift and your newsletter on your Facebook page.

But you are not limited to just promoting your free gift and newsletter – you can use to promote anything you’d like. And, since the box will display HTML, you will be able to use colors, bigger fonts, etc on your page. Just don’t overdo it – a bit of color will bring attention to the information. Too much color and too many things will only confuse people.

– Notes. These are fabulous for sharing ideas and articles and promote your expertise. The best part about the notes is that they are viral. When you post a note information about it gets into your feed that your friends can see.

Your friends can comment on your note, and once they do the information about the comment will be in their feeds, and their feeds will now virally promote your note.

Another great use of notes is to use them to import your blog posts. That way each one of your blog posts will be posted as a note and will be listed in your feed, giving your posts lots of exposure. Your friends will also be able to comment on your posts right there on Facebook if you use Notes to import them.

– Events. Do you offer events, such as teleseminars, webinars and others? Then use Events to let your friends know about them. Just go to Events, create a new event and follow directions to post it and invite others to it.

You can also send updates to people who invited to your events to remind them where they need to register, how they can attend, etc. Don’t send too many reminders, but do remind them once or twice to make sure that everyone who wants to come remembers to register.

I love using this option on Facebook to promote my upcoming teleseminars. I have used it to promote both free and for-fee teleseminars and have always gotten good results.

Just like with everything in marketing, remember to work with your target market and make everything you do relevant to your target market.

Want more social networking tips? Join me for the Social Networking Teleseminar Series

Biana Babinsky

As registrations are rolling in for the How To Get Clients And Build Your List With Social Networking Teleseminar Series, I am having conversations with business owners about social networking.

One question that I have received a few times is:

How Can Coaches Use Social Networking To Promote A Coaching Business?

This is a great question, because I think social networking is one of the best media for coaches to promote their businesses. Sadly, I see many coaches under-use, mis-use or not use social networking at all.

Here are three steps to help you get coaching clients using social networking:

#1: Describe Your Coaching Business On Your Profile.

Don’t just say that you are a life coach, a business coach or a career coach. There are thousands (or even millions!) of other life coaches, career coaches and business coaches using social networking web sites. How is your potential client supposed to know which one to hire if everyone is a life coach?

Instead, use your profile to discuss the benefits that your clients will receive when they work with you or buy your products.

For example, many times I don’t even mention “coaching” or “consulting” when talking about what I do. Instead, I concentrate on clients’ benefits. I tell my potential clients that they will be able to Get More Clients Online when they work with me.

#2: Share Your Free Gift On Your Profile.

I am sure that you would like everyone you meet on social networking web sites to immediately become a life coaching client. Unfortunately, that will happen very rarely.

When your potential clients just encountered your profile on a social networking web site, they don’t have a relationship with you yet. Because of that they do not know that you are an expert at what you do, and they are not willing to invest into coaching with you (yet!).

They are, however, ready to get your free gift and subscribe to your newsletter. Make sure that information about your free gift is VERY visible on your profile. That way you will get more subscribers.

Don’t have a free gift for subscribers yet? Create a free gift now, because a free gift can triple the number of newsletter subscribers without increasing your web site traffic. Once you have your free gift in place, start offering it to people you meet on social networking web sites.

#3: Create Information Products (And Share Information About Them!).

Once your target customers opted in and downloaded your free gift, start sharing information with them and building relationships. As you are building relationships, make sure that you mention what you have to offer.

Many coaches only offer coaching services, and they mention this in every newsletter. However, very few people will be interested in your coaching services. From what I have seen with many of my clients, fewer than 1% of subscribers are interested in one-on-one coaching services. For some people it is the issue of pricing (one-on-one packages cost a lot of money), others are more interested in other ways to learn (e-books, audios, group coaching, etc).

Therefore, if you are only offering coaching services you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Many of your subscribers and people you meet through social networking will not work with you one-on-one, but are interested in buying your products.

Start creating information products to increase your revenues and get more clients through social networking.

Biana Babinsky

I like using Facebook for social networking (if you are a member of Facebook, add me as a friend. Just let me know that you read my blog.). It has been great at helping me connect with members of my target market, find affiliates and create joint ventures and other opportunities for my business.

I like learning more about people and visiting new and old friends’ pages to see what’s new in their businesses, on their blogs, etc. Unfortunately, sometimes I have to leave the pages without learning anything about the friend’s blog or business. This is because some people on Facebook have so many applications on their profile pages that it takes them forever to load.

I know that it is hard to resist to add an application that helps you send someone a hug. Or send someone flowers. Or offer someone a drink. Or add unicorns to your page. Or….

Remember, though, every time you add an application to your Facebook profile page, it becomes bigger. This means that it will take the page longer to load. People are impatient, so if your page isn’t loaded instantly, they will just go on to another page without looking at yours.

Also, since you are on Facebook to bring more clients to your business, think about what those hugs, drinks and unicorns applications say about your business.

Here are three tips to make your Facebook Page more effective:

– Make Your Profile Page Load Fast. If your page takes a long time to load your visitors will go elsewhere and no one will ever find out about you and your business.

Make sure that your Profile Page loads fast on both fast connection and on dial-up. Yes, some people still use dial-up, so you want your page to load for them, especially if they are in your target market.

– Add Business Applications To Your Page. Some of the Facebook applications help you display your blog posts, promote your business web site, promote your newsletter, etc. These are exactly the applications you want to use on your profile.

I myself use applications to display my Free Report on getting clients online, to display my blog posts, etc.

– Decide If You Really Need Non-Business Applications On Your Page. Since you use your Facebook page to market your business, do you really need non-business applications on it?

You may want to add one or two that you really like, but stop there. You are serious about building your business, so make sure that your Facebook profile reflects that as well.

Want to learn more about using social media to build your business? Get my Social Networking Home Study Guide at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znetwork

Biana Babinsky